Results day 2014: my experience of an apprenticeship

Apprenticeships are a great option for a lot of people, says Vicky Johnson,
who realised that university was not for her

Vicky Johnson, 20, is an apprentice in service and repair engineering at British GasPhoto: British Gas

By Emily Chan

10:26AM BST 14 Aug 2014

"It was just the done thing in my school," says Vicky Johnson, "the plan was for everyone to go on to university at the same time."

Vicky, who is an apprentice in service and repair engineering at British Gas, is one of a number of young people opting for an apprenticeship as an alternative to university.

Government figures suggest that 1.8 million apprentices have started training since 2010. A study commissioned by British Gas found that over a third of students have considered taking an apprenticeship instead of the university route.

Almost half of those who responded to the survey said that the ability to ‘learn as you earn’ was the main reason for thinking about vocational training. One in 10 students said that fears about student debt had made them rethink going to university.

Nick Boles, minister for skills and enterprise, said that school leavers were increasingly "considering an apprenticeship as a serious option when deciding their future.”

He added that "apprenticeships are now a respected and rewarding route in to the world of work” and that the government was “putting employers in the driving seat" for designing apprenticeship schemes.

Vicky, 20, tell us why an apprenticeship was the right decision for her.

My mum and dad were a big influence, because they always wanted me to go to university and get a degree. But when they saw I wasn’t happy doing A-levels, they asked me what I wanted to do.

I didn’t have an exact path that I wanted to take in university, or an exact course that I wanted to do.

Student debt was a major factor that put me off. Tuition fees had just changed for my year, and when I saw that, I thought that was a lot of debt to get myself into.

No guaranteed job at the end of it, nothing set in my mind about what to do. It was a big commitment to make financially for something I was really unsure about.

One of the main attractions of apprenticeships is that you’re getting paid while you learn. And once you’ve qualified, you’re set for life.

Some weeks I’ll be based at the academy, learning in the classroom and the workshop they have here.

Other weeks I’ll be out in the area where I work, with a mentor. We’ll be going into people’s houses, and getting the actual work experience.

It’s really built my confidence with meeting new people, talking to new people.

People from all sorts of backgrounds are working on my course. There are people up to the age of 40 doing it, and people as young as 16. It’s really diverse.

I would say more women need to be encouraged to do these sorts of roles. Because there is nothing at all that would hold you back in this career in terms of being a woman.

If you’re not sure what to do as your next step, look into apprenticeships. You’re learning new skills which at university you’d have to pay for. It’s also a fun way to learn. It breaks the learning up; it’s not the same boring structure as A-levels. You do different things on a daily basis.

Apprenticeships aren’t really promoted as much as I think they should be. They’re a really good option for a lot of people, and more people should look into it. I don’t think schools are promoting them enough, or giving enough detail about what‘s involved.

If they did, a lot more people would be doing apprenticeships rather than just following suit and carrying on to university because it’s the main option."